


Reese as Italian Assassin:  "The Portrait" [FANART]

by Wanderer



Series: Reese and Finch Throughout History [12]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Borgia family, Italian Renaissance, M/M, Pre-Slash, Trained assassin, historic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 14:31:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 0
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2232474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wanderer/pseuds/Wanderer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reese as Giovanni Farnese, Finch as Enrico Machiavelli</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reese as Italian Assassin:  "The Portrait" [FANART]

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Mizwidget, for all her help with this. : )
> 
> I decided to add a frame to this, since a portrait needs one.

 

**Author's Note:**

> It is the late 1400’s. Reese has been born into a branch of the Borgia family. ‘Giovanni Farnese’ is the illegitimate son of Rodrigo Borgia and his mistress, Giulia Farnese; half-brother to Cesare and Lucretia Borgia. Born ‘on the wrong side of the blanket’ and hated by Cesare, his older half brother, Giovanni’s childhood and adolescence were difficult. Since Rodrigo always favored his legitimate children, being raised in his household was a nightmare for Giovanni. He was treated worse than a servant; he was taunted, reviled. The brothers regularly fought, and Cesare once attempted to kill Giovanni. 
> 
> When Cesare finally threatened to kill his mother after one of their altercations, Giovanni could bear no more. He risked going to Rodrigo, to tell him of the threat. Rodrigo, a shrewd, cunning man, chose to use Giovanni as an asset. He promised to protect Giulia from Cesare, to give Giovanni his patronage and eventually a small fortune, if Giovanni agreed to do his bidding in all things. Though he knows what kind of man Rodrigo is, and that his patronage comes with a cost, in order to save his mother, Giovanni reluctantly agrees. He spends the next several years training as an assassin, learning to spy and gather information about people, and to use knives or poisons to get rid of Rodrigo's enemies. A devil’s bargain, but Giovanni keeps it for years, out of concern for his mother.
> 
> The painting you see here was commissioned by Giulia when Giovanni was thirty. It shows a handsome, fashionably dressed young man; but if you look closely, there is a dark cynicism in his eyes; a faint look of disdain about his mouth. These are marks of what his service to his father has cost Giovanni. He has already killed several people for Rodrigo, and knows he will likely have to kill more before he is freed of his dishonorable servitude.
> 
> Giovanni remains dutiful, until Rodrigo orders him to kill a beautiful, kind young blonde woman named Genevra Contini, a friend of Giovanni's. Her family is wealthy. Though Giovanni’s secretly been in love with her for years, illegitimate as he is, he knows Genevra’s father will never let her marry him. He has settled, instead, for befriending her. Rodrigo originally wanted her as a bride for Cesare. But Genevra’s father, who distrusts the Borgias and dislikes Cesare, rejects the marriage offer. A furious Rodrigo knows that having Genevra poisoned will be the best revenge on his enemy, since she is the apple of her father’s eye. But for the first time in his life, Giovanni refuses to obey Rodrigo’s order . He won't kill Genevra, whom he's always loved and protected. 
> 
> Rodrigo casts Giovanni out, disinherits him and tells him that if suicide weren't a sin, he would pray that Giovanni would find some way to kill himself, to spare him the pain of ever having to look at him again. Then Rodrigo secretly hires another assassin to kill Genevra. She dies, leaving Giovanni guilty, heartbroken and in disgrace. He wanders the streets of Florence, still well dressed but now penniless, actually thinking of killing himself in despair.
> 
> Giovanni is found by a small, richly dressed man who walks with the aid of a cane. “My name,” he says, “is Enrico Falcone Machiavelli; and I have a proposition for you, Signore Farnese.” 
> 
> Despite his desperate circumstances, Giovanni only smirks at him. “Do you indeed, Signore? Well, I am not interested.” He’s a very handsome man, and it’s hardly the first time an older man has propositioned him sexually.
> 
> As he tries to brush past Signore Machiavelli, Enrico steps into his path. "Wait, please --"
> 
> Giovanni reacts to the older man's outstretched hand as a possible threat, and slams him up against a wall, putting his knife to the older man’s throat. Enrico just calmly raises an eyebrow at him. “It’s not that sort of proposition, I assure you,” he says dryly. “I am in need of a young man with your sort of skills. I hear you are in need of money, and a place to stay. Perhaps you will do me the honor of listening to my offer of employment?”
> 
> “All right.” Giovanni releases him, surprised and intrigued.
> 
> Enrico straightens his clothes, clearing his throat. “Thank you. I am a minor official with the Chancery of the Florentine Republic,” he begins. He takes a step closer to him, his calm gaze suddenly becoming intense. “I believe that together, we can help people in this city who have been anonymously accused of crimes. Will you help me, Signore Farnese?”
> 
> "All right," Giovanni says. "I will." He doesn't entirely trust Machiavelli, but he has nothing better to do at the moment; and if Signore Machiavelli has been lying to him, well. The knife he's learned to hide in his fashionable leather glove is still sharp.
> 
> Thus begins a secret partnership that will save many Florentines who would otherwise have been thrown into prison, their lives lost as irrelevant.


End file.
